Friday, July 24, 2015

the mystery of the NYRB's article, the mystery of ISIS

These are times
that try men’s ribcages – due to the laughter
the bigwig journals provoke. Case in point is an “analysis” of Isis that was
published by “Anonymous”, in the NYRB. We are assured by the editors that Anonymous
is a very serious person. In fact, so serious that the editors seem to have
blithely given him carte blanche to say things and give references that have
the same relation to fact as, say, the figures of monsters on medieval maps
have to zoology. At least the medieval cartographers were cute.

But where to
begin? Reading the hopeless mess of the article, I was struck by one passage.

“The movement’s behavior, however, has not become less
reckless or tactically bizarre since Zarqawi’s death. One US estimate by Larry
Schweikart suggested that 40,000 insurgents had been killed, about 200,000
wounded, and 20,000 captured before the US even launched the surge in 2006.”

I asked myself why such
a toll hadn’t attracted much more world wide attention. Then I looked up the “u.s.”
analyst, Larry Schweikart. There’s no reference for Schweikart’s article, but
going to Schweikart's author page, I learned all about his expertise in Iraqi history,
which is, it appears, considerably less than his knowledge of the electric guitar, which he once played in a minor rock bank. His cv is unimpressive even by the low standards of second rate institutions of higher education. It consists most impressively of the fact that he co-wrote a book entitle Patriot’s History of
the US and a bestseller entitled 48 Liberal Lies About American History. So, basically, under the highminded pretence that we are reading about anonymous' very informed views about the Middle East, where he served in some kind of diplomatic capacity, heaven help us, we are served up retreads from Fox and Friends, which often
interviews Mr. Schweikart. NYRB, meet Daily Caller. At least the rightwing site makes no pretences.

.

It is interesting that in the period of time
since 2002, when the media hysteria about Iraq was at its height, to now, when
the media hysteria about ISIS is at its height, the major journals have learned
absolutely nothing about reporting. The NYRshould profusely apologize to its readers for thrusting anonymous on their
attention. I doubt they will.

About Me

MANY YEARS LATER as he faced the firing squad, Roger Gathman was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover
ice. Or rather, to discover the profit making potential of selling bags of ice to picnicking Atlantans, the most glorious of the old man's Get Rich schemes, the one that devoured the most energy, the one that seemed so rational for a time, the one that, like all the others - the farm, the housebuilding business, the plastic sign business, chimney cleaning, well drilling, candy machine renting - was drawn by an inexorable black hole that opened up between skill and lack of business sense, imagination and macro-economics, to blow a huge hole in the family savings account. But before discovering the ice machine at 12, Roger had discovered many other things - for instance, he had a distinct memory of learning how to tie his shoes. It was in the big colonial, a house in the Syracuse metro area that had been built to sell and that stubbornly wouldn't - hence, the family had moved into it. He remembered bending over the shoes, he remembered that clumsy feeling in his hands - clumsiness, for the first time, had a habitation, it was made up of this obscure machine, the shoe, and it presaged a lifetime of struggle with machine after machine.